Return of the Bad Wolf
by Yusagi
Summary: A request fic from JesIdres-Rose is gone, and so is the Bride. But the Bad Wolf remains forever, and it wants Rose back. AU


Disclaimer: I don't own DW. Heck-I don't even own this idea!

AN: This story was a request from JesIdres...the first italiced parts are all her writing.

-

_Return of the Bad Wolf_

_The Doctor stared in horror. Bad Wolf was gone- he'd taken it from Rose, and when he died and regenerated, it had died with his old body._

'But the Vortex-the Heart of the Tardis- does not die,' the wolf howled in the mirror of the monitor. 'It merely sleeps, gaining strength, adapting. Ready to wake when its time.'

The Doctor understood then- why the Tardis had brought the bride on board, distracting him after Rose was gone. The Wolf had fed off the turmoil of losing Rose, seeping in through the strong emotions of love, loss, anger and fear. She was afraid for him, trying to keep the Bad Wolf at bay without alerting it from his bond with the ship.

But now the Wolf had reared its head, and the glow of the Vortex was spilling out his eyes like he was regenerating; a halo of power leaking out his pores. But for some reason, he didn't feel like he was dying. Perhaps this was a form of regeneration- not quite the Tenth, not quite the Bad Wolf.

"But Rose was the Bad Wolf..." The Doctor's words were distorted as the energy spilling from his mouth, "And she..." the loss poured over him like an overturned basin.

'And we shall get her back.' The Wolf lept from the monitor to him, settling into his consciousness. 'We've been watching, through your eyes...'

The Tardis screens lit up with an pattern image Doctor had seen before, spinning like a giant rubix cube.

"Oh, no, no, NO!"

It was the Skasis Paradigm. The Bad Wolf had seen the Skasis Paradigm back at Deffry Vale, and had cracked it while it rested like a spark in the Doctor's mind. That's why the Vortex wasn't killing him, it rewrote the rules.

And now it was going to reweave the universe to bring her back to him.

-

Rose sighed softly. Three weeks already. It felt like an eternity...cliche as the thought was. Perhaps it was simply the thought of the eternity that stretched onward without him that made it feel so long...

After all...when you died-if there was an afterlife-didn't you just go to the Heaven, or Hell, or Stovokor of that universe? She suppressed a shiver at the thought of spending an eternity with an endless amount of people she never knew.

Of course, reincarnation wasn't exactly any better-she'd never heard of a reincarnated Alexander the Great from a universe where he was a leper, after all.

Those facts were truthfully the greatest reason she hadn't simply given up yet...for, what was there to give up for? As long as she was alive-and in _this_ face-there was that faint glimmer of hope she could still cling to. Besides...what would her Doctor think if he ever found out she'd given up?

She could never disappoint him like that. So she worked. And she lived. And she smiled. But every time she thought she heard a whisper of an unusual sound, she would turn, she would search for the TARDIS or for her Doctor. And no one ever noticed.

Jackie walked up to her with a smile. "You're home early, Rose!"

She would have replied that a nearby lab had exploded and given most of the employees an early release, but a sudden shockwave of heat from behind her sent her flying to the ground instead.

-

It felt like liquid fire flowing through his veins. Not painful exactly-simply...it was just...it was...

Rather annoyingly indescribable.

However you chose to describe the immense power flooding through him-the power of all of time and space, unlocked by the Skasis Paradigm-it was dizzying, intoxicating, and terrifying.

Vortex wove through the consol room of the TARDIS, drawing on the energy permiating the atmosphere in the room, spiralling and twisting into impossible patterns, slicing through reality in ways even he could not comprehend, having not broken the Skasis Paradigm himself.

_"We will find her."_ Whether he or the Bad Wolf had spoken, he was not certain. _"And we will bring her back"_

And reality shattered under his heel.

-

Blinding golden light flooded the room, filling her eyes and invading her very skin, pulling at a shadowy memory buried deep within her mind. When she squinted hard enough, she could just make out an almost familiar form in the midst of the light.

"Who are you?" She yelled at the invader, forcing her legs to cooperate and stand. "If you mean to invade this world...then you'll have to go through me first!"

The form's attention turned toward her, and the light faded slightly. _"I am the Bad Wolf."_

Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes finally adjusted to the glare, and registered just who stood before her.

"_Doctor!_"

He smiled at her.

"How...? You...you said the universes would collapse!"

_"With the Bad Wolf, I found a way."_ He replied cooly. _"And now you will be with me again, My Rose."_

Her mind did not bother to process the alarmed cry from her mother as she leapt up into his arms, nor the mesmorizing chaos of gold that enveloped her as he pulled her away...pulled her free...took her home.

Tears burned her cheeks as she looked up into his white-golden eyes. It was so horribly familiar of when he had 'died'-when he had become the man she now loved.

"Are you gonna..." Her voice choked.

He shook his head softly. "Not this time, Rose..." He chuckled. "Probably not ever again."

She might have asked how, but she abruptly became distracted by his lips on hers, and an unbelievable warmth surging through her. Like the breaking of a dam, all of her memories as the Bad Wolf flooded back to her in full. Time, space, infinity, and this.

She had known then about this. She had prepared for it long ago. And now They were together once again.

The TARDIS' Doctor, and her Rose. Truly together. Now. Yesterday. Tomorrow. Forever.

And together, nothing would ever separate the Bad Wolf again.


End file.
